Pastors learn of divine love, ‘monsters’ affecting ministry

A UMNS photo by Linda Green The Rev. Joy Moore urges pastors to always be open to an encounter with Christ.

ATLANTA (UMNS) — God’s love is neither won, bought nor negotiated, and divine love is not blind to evil, according to a seminary professor.

The Rev. Joy Moore urged pastors of African-American congregations to remember that "God’s love is an expression of his expectation that we might be a reflection of his holiness in a world that is in need of hope."

"There is nothing that you can do to cause God to love you any less," said Moore, assistant professor of preaching at Asbury Theological School in Wilmore, Ky. "And by the same token, there is nothing that you can do to cause God to love you even more."

Moore spoke to about 650 clergy attending the Fourth Convocation for Pastors of African American Churches, Jan. 4-7 in Atlanta. While Moore described the power of divine love, another speaker, the Rev. James McCray, emphasized the need for pastors to have an awakening to their call, and he identified "monsters" that could threaten their ministry.

Citing the biblical story of Cain and Abel, Moore said Cain allowed doubt to overshadow trust because he felt that God had withdrawn from him. She implored the pastors to be open continuously to a spiritual encounter with Christ, so that they can lead others to him. "Our purpose is to point to the God who made us a peculiar people so that others would know that God is God," she said.

The convocation, sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, is a biennal empowerment gathering for pastors of African-American congregations. The theme, "Tarrying for Power, Living in Power," pointed the pastors to the Holy Spirit, the source of their ministerial strength.

"When one has not in a long while happened upon the ecstasy of a spiritual encounter, rituals become habits," Moore said. "When too much time has passed since we’ve acknowledged our relationship with God, our relationship to God becomes duty. Cain was not without the presence of God; they were still on speaking terms."

A UMNS photo by Linda Green The Rev. James McCray tells pastors about the �monsters� that can threaten ministry.

Today’s culture is somewhat lost in its search for God, she said. "We don’t listen to an evangelist as much as we listen to a therapist. The key spokesperson for evangelical Christianity today is not Billy Graham, but James Dobson, a psychologist. It is not that we don’t need to know how to live. It is that we have lost the story that tells who is living in the story."

She told the pastors that it is not possible to reflect God’s image if they have never encountered God. Pastors, she said, choose rules, applications, history, cultural information and religious trivia over telling and hearing "God’s own self-disclosure" through the Genesis to Revelation narrative.

The story is interesting not because of its offerings of political, ethnic, economic and gender issues but for its ability to reshape imagination, she said.

Moore told the clergy they are more offended by racism than the fact that most people don’t use a Bible in church on Sunday. "There is a reason for injustice if you never go to the place where you learn what true justice is." She said that although the Bible is referenced, pastors do not listen to the story itself.

People in church and in the community are asleep to God’s presence and charge upon their lives, said McCray, pastor of Jones Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco

"This requires an awakening," he said. After they awaken, God places pastors where they need to serve.

Often when a pastor responds to the ministerial call, he or she wants to be in a safe and comfortable place. But, McCray said, if the call is to be renewed, strengthened and deepened by the presence of the Holy Spirit, pastors must allow the Spirit to nudge them to the boundaries, move them to the places where God wants them to be in ministry.

"A pastor/minister in the 21st century must be a spiritually mature Christian, desiring a position of leadership in the church or community, and able, willing and desirous of suffering to lead God’s people and teach God’s word," he said.

McCray focused on five "monsters" that affect a pastor’s renewal of the call and effectiveness.

A UMNS photo by Linda Green The Rev. Cynthia Cross is one of 650 pastors who attended the convocation.

Another monster is thinking that the universe is a battleground. The battle syndrome leads a pastor to see the world as a "vast combat zone," allowing life to become a "self-fulfilling prophecy."

Functional atheism is the third monster. This occurs when a pastor thinks "responsibility for everything rests on me." This thought, McCray said, is based on an unconscious conviction that if good is to happen, the pastor must be the one to make it happen. This leads to the "pathology of imposing my will on others, stressing my relationships and breaking others," he said.

The fourth impact on a pastor’s effectiveness is fear of the natural chaos of life. Pastors forget that the Book of Genesis should remind them "in God’s economy, chaos is the precondition to creativity" and "in the creation mythos, life emerges from the void."

The final monster is denial of death. Pastors must remember, he said, that all things die. There is often a demand for the resuscitation of things that are no longer alive, such as programs or projects, he said. "When we are prepared to let things die, we are prepared to get in touch with a new source of life and force."

McCray urged the pastors to renew their call continuously and experience it "as alive."

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Audio Highlights by the Rev. James McCray “I have been touched by God.” “God recruits us.”

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